Should Hearts speculate to accumulate in transfer market after price-tags slapped on Ellis Simms and Connor Ronan?

The club have confirmed there’s an interest in Ellis Simms, the goalscoring hero in the second half of the 2021/22 campaign, along with former St Mirren playmaker Connor Ronan and ex-Dundee United striker Lawrence Shankland. Yet there exists a £500,000 stumbling block in each case – the supposed transfer fee slapped on the heads of each of these individuals by their respective clubs. There’s also Dylan Levitt, who is reportedly available for a fee of £350,000 from Manchester United after an impressive spell at Dundee United last summer.

Being linked with these sort of names is exciting. They’re all proven at the Scottish top flight level and, with the exception of Shankland, they’re all under the age of 25. There’s a belief they will not only improve the squad but could net a handsome profit in future. This all feeds into the emotions of supporters, who are already at a heightened state of nervous energy due to the tantalising nature of the summer window, which in turn leads to impatience. ‘Only £500,000 for Connor Ronan?! Pay it!’ ‘Ellis Simms is a steal at that price!’ etc etc

Adding to such restlessness is the knowledge Hearts are coming into a bit of additional cash this summer. There’s the Aaron Hickey sell-on clause which, though not as much as initially speculated, will still net Hearts a tidy six-figure sum they wouldn’t have budgeted on getting. More importantly, there’s the guaranteed eight games in European football, which will bring in at least €2.94m in prize money alone – a fee which could rise significantly depending on Hearts’ performance in the group stages, not to mention the extra money from gate receipts, merchandising, hospitality and any other additional income which comes from having Tynecastle